After a postponement due to the severe weather conditions, the first event of the Wight Tri Winter Duathlon Series took place at Yaverland Sailing Club in much more favourable conditions.
14 members took on the tough Culverland Duathlon, consisting of either a 5.2km run up Culver Down and running round the battery before heading back downhill, or the shorter 2.75km turning halfway for the short course. 2 or 3 laps of a 9.5km route towards Bembridge made for a hilly but undulating bike ride.
1st on the nominated event was Junior Kaitlin Wilson, completing the long run, short bike and short run course in 1:29:59, just 1 second inside her nominated time. 2nd was Alan Jones, 9 seconds inside his nominated time of 1:57:00 for the long course, with Sean Williams 3rd, completing the long course in 1:37:20, 10 seconds adrift.
Sean was also the fastest on the long course. Veteran Roy Young was fastest on the short course in 1:11:50 with new member Lorien Waterer fastest female in 1:18:46.
Wight Tri would like to thank YSBC for the use of their premises and Neil and Liz for organising and Martin and Richard for their support in timekeeping and marshalling.
The following weekend, the second event, the Colwell Caulker Duathlon, saw 18 members venturing for another tough run and bike course.
With the transition set up at Colwell Common, the run started downhill towards Colwell bay, continuing along the revetment to Totland Pier where the short 2.6km run turned. The longer 4.1km run continued along the bay to climb the steps up onto Turf Walk, back down to the pier and return along the sea wall to transition.
The cycle routes took the competitors out towards Alum Bay and into Freshwater Bay, where the 2 courses split. The 16km short route turned left towards the Middle Road, then into Wilmingham Lane, Thorley and back to transition via the Yarmouth road. The longer 26km route continued up over Afton Down towards Compton Bay, turning left up Brook Shute and then left again along the Middle Road to the Wilmingham Lane junction to complete the route as for the short bike course.
1st in the nominated event was Loic Le Floch, 27 seconds better than his nominated time of 1:32:00 for the long run/long bike/short run route. 2nd was Paul Newnham, completing the long run/short bike/long run route in 1:24:04, 1 min 4 seconds slower than his nominated time. 3rd was Lorien Waterer, 1:08 seconds out, posting 1:08:08 for the short course route.
Sean Williams was again the fastest on the long course in 1:22:14, but was put under pressure right from the start by Dean Pike as they ran neck and neck throughout the first run, coming into T1 together. Sean’s stronger cycling saw him pull away from Dean on the bike, but Dean managed to pull a few seconds back in the second run to finish in 1:24:15. However, both will have to be aware that Craig Wilson is coming back very strongly from injury and posted the fastest long course bike split overall of 46:50 for the 26km route.
Roy Young and Lorien Waterer were again the fastest male and female competitors on the short course, posting 1:04:18 and 1:08:08 respectively.
Wight Tri would like to thank John and Neil for organising and Lizzie and Martin for timekeeping.
The next event in the series will be the Niton Nightmare Duathlon on Sunday 5th December. Further details available on the Wight Tri FB page.
